BEIRUT — Lebanon announced Saturday that Syrian refugees registered with the United Nations should not to return home as of June 1, warning they will lose their status in this tiny Arab country.

The announcement comes ahead of Syria's June 3 presidential elections, a vote President Bashar Assad is widely expected to win to secure a third seven-year term.

Damascus sees the elections as a means to end the 3-year-old conflict, while the Syrian opposition and its Western allies have denounced the vote as a farce aimed solely at lending Assad a veneer of electoral legitimacy.